Mount Pisgah (the other one)

I was going to say we went camping the in Smoky mountains, but apparently Mt Pisgah is in the Appalachian Mountain Range. The Smoky mountains were northwest of us. Regardless it was breathtaking. A wonderful part about living in Columbia is that we are 2 hours from the beach and 2 hours from the mountains. We camped on the top of the mountain with a bunch of friends from our ward. I think there were 5 families in all and we were the first to arrive and set up camp.

I was so excited to go. We hadn't been camping yet with Nadia and the location and company all sounded very enticing. Since we've moved here, things kept getting in the way of a lot of the social events the ward was hosting. Everyone got sick before the ward beach party. We had barely moved in when they had their elder's quorum BBQ social. Fourth of July was another bust due to sick kids. So I was grateful for another opportunity to get to know some people in the ward.

Nadia had gotten sick on Monday and threw up a couple times, but beyond that no one else had shown signs of being ill. So we packed up and hit the road on Friday. Rowan started complaining that he wasn't feeling good, but we thought it was something else. It kept getting worse and by the time we starting driving up the mountain, it was clear something was wrong. After pulling over several times, we determined to keep going since he wasn't throwing up and we were too far from home to head back now.

Well, the urge finally hit Rowan as we were approaching a tunnel. Steve told him to PLEASE hold it until we could get out of the tunnel and pull over. Rowan meekly agreed. When we reached the end of the tunnel, we saw another tunnel. Again Rowan said he'd try to hold it in. And at the end of tunnel #2, we saw yes, another tunnel. On the only stretch of road with 3 tunnels did my son decide he needed desperately to throw up. My sweet boy held it in for all three long tunnels and by the time we reached the end, Steve yarded the car to the side and I leaped out, threw open Rowan's door and managed to pull his head out far enough that the majority made it outside of the car. Thank you Rowan- you are my hero.


Rowan promptly fell asleep with Nadia after that fiasco and Steve and I set up camp while they rested. We got the tent up before a light rain thankfully. Rowan continually got better as time went on and by the next day he was running all over the place.

Spot the sad boy in the tent with a throw up bowl.


When Rowan was feeling a bit better, we hiked up to a country store that was nearby. I was impressed that the prices were not sky high- apparently they get plenty of traffic at the top of the mountain. There's even a nice Inn nearby that our friends told us they went to when they got rained out the last time they had come up.

He got some Gatorade, Nadia got a Rocket Popsicle, Steve got ice cream and I got some fantastic frozen strawberry lemonade.


When our friends arrived, we all gathered around the campfire for our respective dinners. I was more than slightly concerned when Rowan consumed 2 hot dogs, s'mores, grapes, and Doritos. But it all stayed down thank goodness.





The kids slept like logs. It rained on and off through the night, but we were all dry and comfortable. In the morning we tried to get a campfire going, but it was too wet despite our efforts to cover up the wood.



Nadia is constantly singing. But I am unable to record it because every time I try to, I get the following reaction.


We eventually packed up and got ready to go on a little hike with the others. There were little fuzzy caterpillars everywhere and the kids were pretty entertained by them.



We need a minivan if we ever have more children. Every nook and cranny of our car was filled!


Going on a hike.




There was a cool little suspension bridge on the hike that was more than a little wobbly when we crossed it.



After the hike, we stopped for lunch. We start them out early with root beer.



Rowan's appetite was clearly doing well.


So the big event that we were anticipating the entire weekend was Sliding Rock, a natural water slide that is quite the attraction. Unfortunately, Steve had sprained his ankle earlier and the hike had only exacerbated the problem. So he ended up in the car with Nadia while Rowan and I went. The water was like ice and way too cold for Nadia.



Rowan sat on my lap instead of in front of me which we figured out part way down wouldn't work. Once he got off me, I had to use my hand to slow us down.



Rowan's initial reaction after the first run was "That was awesome!" So we tried to find Steve for the second run, but we couldn't find him anywhere (He was in the car at that point). I told Rowan I would take him and he consented, but as we were waiting in line, he decided he wanted to go down the more gentle side. That wasn't going to be strong enough to propel both me and him as we discovered the first time, so I made him come down the stronger side with me. He ended up losing his shoe the second time around and completely freaked out. It was a tad embarrassing.

So even with the throw up, rain, sprained ankle, and lost shoe/angry child, we had a blast and loved it. Next time we plan to go on a weekday to avoid the larger crowds, but we are so excited that we know a great place for camping now. The temperature in the mountains was 20 degrees less than where we live, so it's definitely an added incentive to take a trip.